Multiple clouds: The Goldilocks scenario

Fact: Cloud is mainstream - we’re through the worst of the conceptual hype and now firmly in the ‘real cloud’ zone.

With global quarterly cloud infrastructure revenues now passing the $5 billion (£3.2 billion) milestone, businesses are now focusing on real world deliverables: what can be achieved when you select the right cloud for the right applications at the right time.

Research undertaken by Adapt, revealed that 59 per cent of IT decision makers believe that more than half of their IT infrastructure will be cloud-based by 2017. The scales are tipping, but striking the right balance requires a phased, hybrid journey-based approach for most businesses: assessing the true relevance of cloud to their ongoing strategy, applications and workloads rather than participating in an ‘as a Service’ race.

Despite this, nearly 30 per cent of respondents predicted between 75 per cent -100 per cent of their infrastructure would be in the cloud within the next two years. Clearly there is an accelerating demand for cloud-based services, even if the hype has given way to pragmatism.

Supporting businesses’ unique and typically non-linear journeys to the cloud demands service provider flexibility. It’s the Goldilocks scenario; increasingly, businesses won’t settle for cloud services that are too big, too small, too ‘hot’ or too ‘cold’, they want a partnership that is just right – both now and in the future. Thanks to the overwhelming amount of technical and marketing content available online and their own experience, b2b buyers are typically very well-informed - they know what they need and who can deliver it.

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) help businesses create both standardised and customised environments that meet their specific needs. The hybrid approach is firmly set as ‘the mediator’ between cloud and non-cloud infrastructures, with MSPs taking charge of both ends.

As cloud technologies mature and the market for cloud services continues to grow, it makes sense that hype has been replaced by logic and rationale. Businesses understand better what works and now know how to ask for it.

If 59 per cent of IT decision makers believe that more than half of their IT infrastructure is going to be cloud based by 2017, it seems the hybrid is well and truly here to stay.